While I was a junior engineer my supervisor said to me, “Your best friend is going to be this rubber.”
At the time I was working on some early stage feasibility sketches. We did these in pencil on paper, essentially tracing over the architectural drawings with the structure. I took it at face value at the time. If you make a mistake or want to change something, the reason we do it in pencil is so we can erase it.
It was only a decade later that I realized what he really meant. Yeah sure, he meant don’t be afraid to change the drawings. These early stages is the time to explore options. But it is a metaphor.
The eraser is a metaphor
One day, when I presented my proposal to a client, I briefly went through our process. I laid out our methodology. And I got to the part of the process where we explore options. And I diligently described our process of exploring options. And I said that I have allowed to explore at least 4 main options and then multiple options within these four options. The idea here is to determine the ‘best’ solution. Their response shocked me:
“Why would you explore all these options? Just choose the best one and use it.”
The least understood part of our work is the play that occurs during the design process, particularly at the early stages. You might think that we are given drawings and the structural solution is obvious. That there is no reason to explore options because, as an experienced engineer, the solution is right there in front of you. You don’t need to search for it.
I argue that even the most straight forward of structures has multiple options. And a solution that you choose for one project, is not necessarily the solution you would choose for a different project. A simple example of this is a double cantilevered roof framed in timber. And if we were to do this in prefab, the selection of the solution is different again. Double cantilevered roofs have been used for centuries. One of the best examples of this is the Michigan House by Mies Van Der Rohe. In this house there are three double cantilevered roofs. All of them are done differently. It is almost as if they were experimenting with the different methods and analyzing which one was best.
When I am mentoring, I have found from experience that it is not helpful to do any if the process behind closed doors. It is important to show them how you play. If you simply present the outcome to them, they will simply assume that you knew the answer before you started and you simply wrote it down. But this is far from what actually happens. You must show them the process. This process is the most important part of the design.